TCS Sydney Marathon 2025 in Numbers

On 31 August 2025, the streets of Sydney saw more than 30,000 runners on the road. It marked the city’s arrival among the absolute elite of distance running. The TCS Sydney Marathon made its debut as the seventh Abbott World Marathon Major, joining Boston, New York, London, Berlin, Chicago, and Tokyo in the world’s most high-profile marathon series.

Sydney is now the first and only Major in the Southern Hemisphere. The race taps into Sydney’s storied history in athletics: first run in 2000 as a test event for the Sydney Olympics, and has grown from there. In this first year as a Major, the elite runners including Eliud Kipchoge, Sifan Hassan raced in Australia for the first time.

Participation Trends

Out of 34,141 registered runners, 32,967 crossed the finish line, marking a finish rate of 96.6%. Sydney also stood out for its global reach, runners from 169 countries toed the line, making this first Major in the Southern Hemisphere one of the most internationally diverse editions yet.

While men made up roughly two-thirds of the field, the presence of over 11.4k women finishers is not bad at all.

• Age category 30–34 was the single largest age group, with 4,891 finishers (15%), closely followed by 40–44 (4,724) and 35–39 (4,554). Together, runners in their 30s and early 40s (30–44) contributed nearly 45% of all finishers. This confirms the trend that the sweet spot for marathon running continues to lie in mid-career adults. At the other end of the spectrum, there were 249 finishers in their 70s and 5 finishers aged 80+.
• Women’s participation peaked in the 25–34 range: 1,713 (25–29) 1,628 (30–34), together, that’s nearly 29% of all female finishers. Female finishers remained strong even into the 45–54 bracket (2,820 women), highlighting how more women are staying in the sport well past their 20s and 30s.
• For men, the highest numbers also came in the 30–44 range, with more than 9,500 finishers, showing consistency with global marathon demographics.
• The gender gap widens with age; in younger brackets (18–29), women account for about 40% of finishers, but this dips steadily, dropping below 30% after 55.
• Masters participation (50+) is robust with nearly 6,000 finishers, which is 18% of the total field. This is on par with established Majors like Tokyo and Berlin.

Top Nations

Runners from across Australia made up the biggest part of the field, nearly 47% of the total field. From there, the marathon broadened out across the world. USA was the second-largest contingent with 3,410 finishers. Then came the United Kingdom and China, spanning the Top 3 honors across three continents. India’s presence is not bad either, with 21st among the number of finishers, just ahead of Brazil.

Looking by continents, Australia/Oceania at the top is not surprising at all. The second-largest presence however surprisingly came from Asia, with runners traveling from across the region from China and Indonesia to the Philippines, Japan, and India. Sydney’s location in the Southern Hemisphere clearly makes it a natural magnet for Asian runners, many of whom might otherwise have to travel long-haul to Europe or North America to chase a Major. Runners from Europe and North America together formed another large chunk of the field.

Finisher Times

The most crowded part of the race was just around the 4-hour mark, where more than 3,100 runners finished. This aligns with what we often see in World Majors: the symbolic sub-4 target attracts a big portion of recreational marathoners, and Sydney was no exception.

The overall distribution follows an almost bell-shaped pattern. From about 3:30 to 4:30, the finish line was at its busiest, with each 10-minute bucket carrying close to 2,000+ runners. Earlier finishers were fewer, but still sizable with more than 1,300 runners who broke 3:30. On the other side, there is a long tail with curve stretches all the way past the 7-hour mark. Over 1,200 runners finished between 5:00–5:30, and a steady stream continued right past the 6- and even 7-hour marks.

About 1301 finishers achieved the Sub 3 mark, which is praise worthy given the rolling nature of the course. For reference Tokyo Marathon 2025, which has much flatter course has 1647 sub 3 finishers.

India at Sydney Marathon

Sydney’s first year as a World Marathon Major drew a lively contingent from India. With 300+ Indian finishers across every age band.

Amit Lahekar (2:42:56) topped the Indian charts, finishing 202nd overall and inside the global top 200 men. A strong men’s front pack formed behind him: multiple Indians dipped under 3 hours ( Sanchit Agarwal – 2:50:42, Prashanth Narasimhan – 2:52:04, B J Vikram – 2:55:43, Karthik Anand – 2:56:38), showing some depth there.

Overall Rank	Name	bib	Finish Time	Age Category	Category Rank	Gender Rank
202	Amit LAHEKAR	1507	2:42:56	30-34	61	186
478	Sanchit AGARWAL	2568	2:50:42	25-29	89	450
535	Prashanth NARASIMHAN	1577	2:52:04	25-29	97	506
802	B J VIKRAM	1570	2:55:43	35-39	149	759
880	Karthik ANAND	1959	2:56:38	40-44	139	832
1355	Shamik Pramod KANAIYA	2921	3:00:46	35-39	230	1287
1684	Nigel THOMAS MUKALUMPURATHU	3852	3:05:33	25-29	299	1589
2281	Shrey BHUTRA	3298	3:11:07	30-34	472	2115
2630	Aditya JAIN	4966	3:14:02	40-44	424	2429
2827	Sumit CHATLEY	20664	3:15:21	35-39	450	2598

Deepa Nayak (3:21:28) led the Indian women, placing inside the top 400 women overall, yet another quality WMM performance from her. Close behind were Vandana Arora (3:28:18) and Sunmbul Rahman (3:35:43), anchoring a cluster of Indian women finishing 3:20–3:40 and reinforcing the rise of competitive amateur women from India.

Overall Rank	Name	bib	Finish Time	Age Category	Category Rank	Gender Rank
3736	Deepa NAYAK	2810	3:21:28	35-39	61	348
5111	Vandana ARORA	5836	3:28:18	45-49	53	605
6715	Sunmbul RAHMAN	12486	3:35:43	50-54	54	950
9585	Kalyani SATIJA	21987	3:48:10	40-44	256	1724
13558	Ranjini GUPTA	12520	4:01:10	45-49	343	2963
13779	Manisha SRIVASTAVA	22901	4:02:17	50-54	251	3023
14316	Roopali MEHTA	10998	4:04:45	50-54	270	3212
14403	Shilpa KALUVALA	12158	4:05:14	45-49	377	3243
15477	Gurpreet KAUR	22239	4:10:22	35-39	507	3626
15543	Sangita GUPTA	6134	4:10:44	45-49	425	3649

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Compiled by Team GeeksOnFeet for the love of running